Rosen Law Office

You probably know that when someone leaves a job, he has to be paid for the time he worked.  But he also has to be paid for the vacation days he earned, but didn’t take.

You may have a “use it or lose it” policy.  Your manual probably encourages employees to take advantage of their well-earned time off because it expires at the end of the year.  Until last summer, many employers believed they didn’t have to pay departing employees for  such earned but unused vacation time.

Last June, the Supreme Judicial Court clarified the situation. Even if vacation time cannot accumulate from year-to-year, and the employer doesn’t consider the vacation time “earned,” vacation time that accrues during the year is “wages,” and must be paid in full at termination.

Employees may not be forced to use up paid vacation or sick time before taking unpaid maternity leave under the Massachusetts Maternity Leave Act.

The Massachusetts Maternity Leave Act (“MMLA”) guarantees full-time female employees eight weeks of maternity leave, when giving birth or adopting a child.   This maternity leave is unpaid. An employee may choose to use vacation or sick time concurrently with her MMLA leave, but she may not be required to exhaust her paid sick and vacation time in order to use her MMLA leave.

–Nora Adukonis